I worry that the mentally ill shall face some of the same "treatment" as did US Muslims after 9/11.

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Sat Dec 22, 2012, 02:40 PM - Edit history (5)

(Update December 21: "Oh boy...right.....again." Please see the stories at the end beyond the video. We will not be their bogeyman as they seek to expand the market for arms manufacturers.)

Not to that disgusting extent but along the same lines. I do not wish some absolute lumping together of one of the least discussed or understood groups of people in our society. A mainstream media special report last night on the tragedy in Newtown ended with fear-mongering regarding the mentally ill, and made a literal call for people to report oddly-acting "mentally ill" people to the police, even if they say they are joking, to let the police sort it out. I reject this call for distrust, fear, and the further division of the US people and I hope that you will as well. I AM reminded of a banner seen in the film "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam: "Don't suspect your neighbor; turn them in!" Let's not let it get to that. :/

Mental health is a very complex issue and it effects more Americans than given this tragedy, might make some comfortable. There are all levels of illness involved, and proven methods of care. Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all mentally ill people are dangerous to themselves or others. We are seeing extremes and I encourage people to not make absolute conclusions about all of the people who have varying levels of illness as a result. Please let there be conversation and education instead. Please let it be known that with care and the correct support, there is little "need" for tragedy.

The increasingly for-profit prison industrial complex and the horrific mental wards and asylums are no answer. The problem has been in republicans increasingly slashing budgets for care (Ahnold in California cut mental health budgets 60% in one go, and this was not his only "go" at it). Combine massive lobbying to make guns easily available with enormous cuts to social programs for those who really, really need it and you've got a recipe I daresay they KNOW will lead to violence and destruction (much less the actual costs to cities for emergency care, etc. same as for the homeless). I worry that they actually wish to cause some level of trouble which will enable power grabs and legislation they've long since planned. When you follow the money, this stops sounding ludicrous. And their spreading of distrust, of dividing and conquering the country, becomes increasingly visible.

(I am NOT including big pharma's overdrive to force drugs upon everyone, for profit, as mental health "care". Note that "abilify", now marketed as a depression alleviator, is an enormously powerful anti-psychotic, period, that they are cross-marketing for profit purposes. I saw one person get Tardive Dyskinesia, or permanent uncontrolled muscle spasms, from that crap, yet there they go creating new markets...absolutely disgusting. What did they do for the guy whose face began slamming around? Rushed him out of the place, never to be seen again. Good work there. That's sarcasm.).

Suffice to say, there are multiple levels of profiteers involved in this, and lobbyists usually "win". It would and hopefully will be interesting to see republican's reactions to any attempt to significantly increase mental health care budgets to where they will best function for those in need. Any resistance would be quite telling. And all of this perfectly feeds into the DHS/Patriot Act push to categorize Americans as potential terrorists, so that they may continue expanding both their budgets and Kontrol. Fear the Other! We NEED drones in our skies and paramilitary police! Augh..

Please do not fear what you might not yet understand. Please do not take the advice of those who sell fear (or prisons or drugs) for a living. Please do start the conversation so that another group does not end up demonized and marginalized as so many previously have in our "society". We are better than that. We have a better future ahead of us than that. Peace.

Further reading:

Public Buses Across Country Quietly Adding Microphones to Record Passenger Conversations

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/public-bus-audio-surveillance/

Articles on Wells Fargo shareholding in for-profit prisons

http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=wells+fargo+for+profit+prison+shares&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

On the other side of things, how much was saved through housing the chronically homeless, as a general model:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:pmd70uQPc2wJ:zev.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/Project-50-Cost-Effectiveness-report-FINAL-6-6-12.pdf+project+50+los+angeles&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiCeEzcO7HWmBf8m7M906K0l2e3t-GWY-w4y0k4HjTVX8CcR6hPCTc4hPlkJpwN9ZHO8v0mIi6HzdlrqjjfHiiGw2zd2DIKguWHzNFgwYfjKNI-8h5clO92lWoyJec0D0VyU01A&sig=AHIEtbRON7MWwNTu1KsQEVX1TEDLn6IPhg

"Preface
A growing body of research literature demonstrates that the provision of housing to
chronically homeless populations provides a critical foundation from which to address
problems in the areas of physical health, mental health and substance abuse. A
consensus is also emerging among researchers to the effect that the permanent
supportive housing model – in which chronically homeless individuals are provided with
housing as well as services and intensive case management – is not only humane but
also fiscally prudent insofar as it tends to be considerably less expensive than what
takes place when homeless persons are left on the streets and forced to address their
health and substance abuse problems through emergency systems of care, and in a
fragmented fashion. The present report evaluates Project 50, a Board of Supervisors
demonstration project that provides housing and integrated services to some of the
most vulnerable, chronically homeless adults living in the Skid Row section of Los
Angeles. The program offers policymakers a test case of the viability of the permanent
supportive housing model in Los Angeles County. The bulk of this report looks at
Project 50 from the standpoint of a cost avoidance analysis and shows that, between
2008 and 2010, the program not only saved the County money but actually yielded a
surplus. While $3.045 million was invested in Project 50, the program yielded cost
savings of $3.284 million over the two-year observation period, a surplus of $238,700,
or $4,774 per occupied housing unit over two years (an occupied housing unit refers to
one housing unit occupied by one person). Mental health and substance abuse
treatment costs increased for the program’s participants, primarily because acute
problems in these areas had remained largely unaddressed prior to the admission of
participants to Project 50, but these increases were more than offset by savings in the
areas of incarceration and medical services. In an effort to add qualitative information
to the cost savings results and gain a better understanding of Project 50’s functionality
and the effectiveness of its homelessness prevention methods, this report additionally
features the results of focus group interviews conducted with participants and program
staff. The qualitative results highlight the practices that have enabled the program to
generate such dramatic cost savings results, showing that Project 50 is proactive and
responsive in creating the basic conditions necessary for persons with severe barriers
and long histories of life on the streets to begin to achieve greater self-sufficiency and
stability. Taken together, the cost savings and qualitative results paint a picture of an
efficient and effective approach to the problem of homelessness, one that is well worth
replicating in other parts of Los Angeles County."

Manuel H. Moreno, Ph.D.
Director of Research,
Research and Evaluation Services

Los Angeles Project 50 shows it costs more to leave vulnerable neighbors on the street than it does to house them permanently

http://unitygno.org/2012/06/los-angeles-project-50-shows-it-costs-more-to-leave-vulnerable-neighbors-on-the-street-than-it-does-to-house-them-permanently/

However...the LA sheriffs are asking for $2 billion to build two new prisons, and the so-called "safer cities initiative" has pumped over $6,000,000 per year into increased police presence and nuisance arrests of the homeless and mentally ill on Skid Row. This is far more money than Project 50 used to save lives and money for the city.

http://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=safer+cities+initiative+%246+million&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

You will read that there is "crime" on Skid Row, and that police are making arrests. What is omitted is that the "crime" can come at the level of non-compliance with nuisance ordinance designed to criminalize the homeless. When arrests build and citations are not paid, people end up in jail. For-profit jails.

The homeless, the addict, the mentally ill are under attack, are fodder for profit. This is not the society we need.

---

Update, Dec. 21:

Mental health group blasts NRA call for database on mentally ill

http://morningjournal.com/articles/2012/12/21/news/doc50d4e60ca91a0077727395.txt

A major mental health advocacy group blasted the National Rifle Association today for calling for a national database on people with mental illnesses.

In a brief aside at a press conference this morning, the NRA’s chief executive officer blamed the elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn, in part on the “nation’s refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill.”

The National Alliance on Mental Illness, a grassroots advocacy group representing families affected by mental illness, said that such a database would be overly broad.

In a statement, executive director Michael Fitzpatrick noted that one in four Americans have been treated for such things as depression or anxiety and few are at risk of being violent.

(More at the link.)



The Republican Dalek ‏@RepublicanDalek

NYPD EXAMINES WATCHING EVERYTHING YOU DO ONLINE. PURELY IN CASE YOU SNAP AND SHOOT A BUNCH OF PEOPLE, OF COURSE. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/nyregion/police-dept-to-use-internet-to-try-to-stop-shootings.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0 …

Police Dept. to Use Internet to Try to Stop Mass Shootings

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/21/nyregion/police-dept-to-use-internet-to-try-to-stop-shootings.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&

Top intelligence officials in the New York Police Department met on Thursday to examine ways to search the Internet to identify potential “deranged” gunmen before they strike, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.

“The techniques would include cyber-searches of language that mass-casualty shooters have used in e-mails and Internet postings,” Mr. Kelly said in a statement. “The goal would be to identify the shooter in cyberspace, engage him there and intervene, possibly using an undercover to get close, and take him into custody or otherwise disrupt his plans.”

snip

There are plans to send officers to Newtown and to scenes of other mass shootings to collect information, Paul. J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said.

Mr. Browne said the potential tactics included creating an algorithm that would search online “for terms used by active shooters in the past that may be an indicator of future intentions.”



SWAT cops to ask for IDs from everyone in Arkansas town

http://rt.com/usa/news/swat-guns-paragould-arkansas-224/

There isn’t a lot to do in Paragould, Arkansas, but residents of the town of barely 25,000 seem to have no problem finding trouble. Now in order to curb the rising crime rate, the city is proposing heavily armed police patrol the streets on foot.

At a town hall meeting on Thursday, Mayor Mike Gaskill and Police Chief Todd Stovall endorsed a plan to send cops dressed in full-fledged SWAT gear and equipped with AR-15s into downtown Paragould starting in 2013.

The militarized police force will be tasked with trying to control a crime rate that has made Paragould an increasingly dangerous place to live in recent years. According to statistics collected by city-data.com, Paragould has had a property crime index rating more than double the national average since 2007. Rapes, burglaries, thefts and assaults per capita are also well above the mean there, statistically suggesting Paragould is perhaps the least-safe among area cities.

"This fear is what's given us the reason to do this. Once I have stats and people saying they're scared, we can do this," Stovall said, according to the Paragould Daily Press. "It allows us to do what we're fixing to do."




U.S. Shooting Deaths Since Sandy Hook Top 100

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/us-shooting-deaths-sandy-hook_n_2348466.html

This week, as mourners gathered in Newtown, Conn., to bury Sandy Hook Elementary's dead, and a nation renewed its debate over guns, the shootings did not stop. The Huffington Post spent the week tracking gun-related homicides and accidents throughout the U.S., logging more than 100 from Google and Nexis searches. This is by no means a definitive tally. In 2010, there were more than twice that many homicides alone in an average week.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. I worry about it too. I've a fairly close family member who was recently diagnosed.

"Complicated" doesn't even begin to describe the situation.

Thanks for taking the time to share your considerable knowledge yesterday and today.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. I hope your family member is okay and has no problems or complications :(

And you're welcome. Peace.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. There've been some occupational ramifications.

i.e. change of career plans. But he's better off than most: he's newly employed ( recent college grad; the illness surfaced during college; end of freshman year.).

Not working in the field he aspired to, though. That's not likely to happen.

I worry about the nebulousness of the diagnosis and the uncertain prognosis. He's been ok for three years. But............?

Thanks for asking.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. I'm so sorry. At least he's on it early and may have some useful continuity.

I share his suffering. I lost my career (music technology) as a result of then-burgeoning dual-diagnosis. I'm now unable to do the same work, and it was my Joy. My best to him, you and your family.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

3. Glad to see someone else start this thread.

Many, many, many mentally ill are gainfully employed. Here's where it gets tricky. On the one hand, folks are asking for background checks that include MI. On the other hand, this information is going to be stored in a database. Information in databases are never confidential, and when there's a buck to be made, this information can be sold. My concern is that this information will be sold to HR departments, head hunters, and the like.

Hopefully, we won't let a knee-jerk reaction leave others who deserve protection exposed.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. AIDS victims were marginalized in this manner as well.

In symmetry, they've become some of the finest political activist groups in the country, so perhaps a flower may yet grow out of manure. Peace.

[ck4829]

34. I know you're not suggesting it, but it has to be said

"folks are asking for background checks that include MI"

Yeah, let's exclude them and isolate them even more. That will REALLY help them and will totally not make more people deranged.


People like Adam Lanza were extremely disturbed and should not be interchangeable with the great majority of the people with depression, OCD, schizophrenia, developmental disabilities, etc. This will only push people and not help anyone.

This needs to be regulated, people need to remember that Adam Lanza probably snapped because he was isolated, and people with brains that were working just fine before they faced periods of isolation have also snapped. It is a form of torture.

[pinboy3niner]

5. Virtually all of us are "mentally ill" in some way

And I'm not so sure about the need for the qualifier, "virtually." It's only a question of degree.

I don't think I know anyone who is perfectly sane and rational and without any psychological effects from their life experience.

[Live and Learn]

6. Very true. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. Seeing how destructive and traumatizing this society can be, I'd have to agree.

How much better if emotional health techniques were both taught and well-known. Forget that nonsense about real men "sucking it up" or that crying is for babies. Carl Jung said that when the dis-ease is named, healing may begin. May we find ever greater investment in healing technologies and the general awareness for their need. Peace brother.

[pinboy3niner]

10. Something you'll appreciate, brother...

After the 'Rambo' movie came out, there was a political cartoon that I remember well, though I can't find it now.

The cartoon showed Sylvester Stallone and a bunch of other people sitting around a table with the caption, "Will the real Vietnam vet please stand up?"

In the last panel, the only one standing up was the lone woman at the table.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Our Veterans especially deserve far better than what they've gotten

much less potentially increasing stigmatization. I have to admit I was swimming in my own head while writing the post and forgot to connect that an embarrassing percentage of the homeless and traumatized are Veterans. Thank you for gently reminding us of this national disgrace and its obvious imperative. We ARE a better country than to allow this.

[pinboy3niner]

12. The bigger imperative is for our women vets and the sexual abuse they've endured

There are a lot of vets' issues that don't get the attention they deserve, but I'd put women vets' issues at the top of the pile. They've suffered horrendous abuse, but it seems that no one is listening to them.

[Denninmi]

13. Great post. Thank you for caring.

When I was diagnosed as bipolar back in August, I literally felt it was a death sentence, not because of the disease process itself, but because of the implications it had for me in terms of employment, family life/relationships, social status, finances. I couldn't imagine any scenarios where I didn't lose my job, be rejected by my family, ostracized and ridiculed by society, and end up medically and otherwise bankrupt. I literally saw my future ending in homelessness, some facility, or jail. And frankly, prior to hearing the term "bipolar" I never had "suicidal intent"' but leaving the psychiatrist's office that day, I thought very, very seriously about finding some large, solid concrete structure along the freeway that I could drive straight into at 90 MPH and effectively end my problems.

i was very, very close to doing that out of fear that it was game over for me, because all of this was a very bitter pill to swallow for a middle class guy from an upper middle class suburb who has multiple college degrees, has alway worked full time, is a caregiver to my elderly mother, takes care of two houses and yards, and has never in my life been in any kind of trouble. I live in a great community, work in another, and frankly I do enjoy all of the things, material and non-material, that this lifestyle encompasses. It didn't help that, on my route home from that fateful appt, I have to drive directly by the local men's shelter, where the homeless guys mill about waiting to be let in for the night. I thought I would be in that queue for a bed within a matter of months. Left me terrified.

And then I spent three weeks in a psychiatric day program, where I saw things that left me convinced that yes, a lot of this is about profit for someone at the expense of the patient. It seems to me that "treatment" for mental health issues for many people is a merry-go-round of expensive hospitalizations, expensive doctors, therapists, and very, very expensive drugs. The retail price of ONE TABLET of Abililfy is about $34, about $1000 a month. Since my crap insurance doesn't cover prescriptions, I am on the cheap generic stuff. A lot of patients "buy into it" and quit fighting for themselves, for whatever reason, and they live in, and seem to live for, the permanent mental health crisis.

NOT ME. NO WAY. I saw enough then and there to say "Oh Hell No" to that one. I am doing everything I possibly know how to do to run away from this dark vision of my future as if Satan himself were chasing me. Bad timing, I guess, but on Friday, I had worked up the courage to "come out" about my condition and treatment to my little corner of the DU community. And everyone was kind, gracious, understanding, and supportive.

Then all Hell broke loose because of one man, one meme, and I find a lynch mob mentality towards anyone with a mental health issue right here on DU. Because, you know, the fact that the good old USA is armed to the teeth isn't the problem, it's those damned crazy people, who should all be locked away for the good of society. I don't really need to use the "sarcasm" emoticon here, do I?

News flash for the haters, I am no one's second class citizen and I won't be treated like one. Frankly, I'm a hell of a lot better man than many "normal" people running around this society, I don't drink, lie, cheat on a SO, not pay my bills or taxes, and I treat other people with kindness and respect. The fact that I have a genetically based "mood disorder" doesn't make me any less human than the rest of you.

So, if they want to label me, ostracize me, and lock me up because I'm bipolar, they better be aware of the fact I'm not going down without a fight.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Fantastic post, fantastic attitude. Bravo.

I wish everyone at DU could see this. Someday I'd like to shake your hand in congratulations.

Change occurs through necessity, and this is ours. I'm finding it heaven-sent that my last year working with Occupy revealed to me what it has, about the homeless and the systems acting against them (lobbyists for gentrification are doing the majority of the damage), and that my own experiences in mental health allow me to tie together these things in some semblance of meaning to illustrate our greater problems already extant, to reveal the struggle in the face of the greater disaster.

I certainly have been no angel in my day, but I am working for the positive with all I have left for it is imperative, and now, even obviously moreso. Hopefully we can make a positive difference at this critical juncture. Peace.

[Smarmie Doofus]

17. And.... you can *write*. Wowza! Powerful stuff. n/t

[Denninmi]

18. Thanks.

I may be "crazy" but I'm not stupid.

[lbrtbell]

14. It's disheartening

How sensible posts like these get the fewest recs lately.

[slackmaster]

16. Violent mentally ill people pose a threat to themselves and to everyone else

They need help, whether they accept it willingly or not.

[HereSince1628]

19. Yes, thats true, but

I think there is reasonable concern that finding catharsis to the emotional crisis via oversized fear against phantom unnamed illnesses predisposes folks to more general fear, and stigmatizing treatment, of the mentally ill later on.

I'll grant you that some of that fear the mentally ill, and their advocates, are feeling is undoubtedly due to transference...relating to the object of others fear...also creates dissonance that must be worked through.

Don't you think DU would benefit if both sides cranked up some awareness and empathy for the emotional problems that have stressed each other?

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. I'm very sorry for your experience and for their suffering. :(

Just please know that not all "mental illness" results in such heartbreak as it is not all at the same depth. It is important to have these conversations. My best wishes to you.

[slackmaster]

25. Thanks. I think I'm better informed that most people. I do have a degree in psychology, and...

...some training in crisis intervention.

But there's nothing like the cold wet kiss of a real life experience to wake a person up. I know several people who are being treated successfully for depression. I've also seen people go down very badly with schizophrenia, and personality disorders.

[Fire Walk With Me]

30. Knowing something was wrong with me, I studied psychology and abnormal psych

as well as lots of other things, some useful. I hope that everyone you mention does well and lives as full a life as is possible. I would also like to present the other side, so to speak, in that I've experienced some of it and the system is not perfect, is not omniscient, and makes mistakes which can cause harm. Sometimes there is good intent and that's a buffer, but most often there were people who just couldn't hear a patient as a human being, but only as some cookie-cutter amalgam of whatever is in the current literature, and God forbid you not fit. I was finally diagnosed with bipolarity NOS ("non-specific", meaning they don't know!) in addition to classic alcoholism. I'm sticking very close to the AA program as it does work the miracles it promises...but when I was in the ward, the near utter lack of understanding on the part of doctors and staff regarding classic addiction and the 12-Step solution as both stunning and horrible. Again, it was like talking to walls. Many times what I said was indeed the truth beyond what they saw about me and they did come around to it in most instances. Horrible. Awful. Unacceptable.

I'm lucky to be functional enough to be here having this discussion, and I'm grateful for that. But as others here have said, even given proper support and comfort/conditions, there is a hard limit to what we may have in this life. I dare never pass on this DNA through fathering children, for example. Would never adopt for the mere reason of the illnesses and also, because I live at half the level of the poverty cutoff and could not fund a family if I wished. My ability to really work has been taken from me. All I'm saying is that none of this is easy on this side, either. Especially now that the irate are marching in and are sometimes =not= interested in having any amount of this sort of conversation. I worry about absolutist characterization and further suffering for myself and others as a result. Things are bad enough and we have to be heard. Peace!

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. "Do what we say or else". :/

My experience in "mental health" is that the system is terribly broken and many involved in it don't care. Even applying this mess to your dictum would be a losing proposition along with the use of wanton force and destruction of freedom and self-determination in those who do not fit your criteria. The problem is, how to determine the criteria under which you would be justified in your position. Which doctors? Hopefully ones not on the take with big pharma. Which judges? Hopefully none on the take with the for-profit prison industrial complex. Which police? Hopefully none, ever. I've seen far more roid cops and injustice from them than I have any amount of dangerous mentally ill people, at least directly in person.

By some definitions, wall streeters and psycho corporate bosses are violently mentally ill, because of psycopathy and asocialism. Shall we rush their offices and put them away? Again, who is qualified to judge, much less adequately and compassionately? As the above poster said, this is a need for compassion and understanding. If gangs of the "concerned" start marching around and imprisoning any they don't like, where have we gotten ourselves? Please re-read my posts at the bottom of the OP regarding how adequate mental health care can work wonders, versus republican cuts nearly specifically designed to put at-risk people into situations catalytic toward trouble.

It's up to us to help, not throw away the key. BIG difference.

Is this what we want? Because some people obviously want this power grab enough to make it happen:

TruthBeckons ‏@BeckonsTruth

SWAT cops to ask for IDs from everyone in Arkansas town http://fb.me/25DOPvf9A

[slackmaster]

23. Please read about a law we have here in California. I think it's a good one, but it's only been...

...implemented in one county so far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura%27s_Law

[Fire Walk With Me]

26. A tragedy, yet it is another extreme example when the majority are not

and that is my point.

Know that I spent some time in a ward due to an extreme situation (negative influence versus care/comfort) and they attempted what you've described: a court order to force administration of extreme drugs against my will. Note that I was mis-diagnosed by a doctor or whoever that was during a five-minute conversation and that the drugs they were going to force upon me were intolerably destructive compared to what actually ended upon helping me. One voluntary exposure to the mis-diagnosis-level drug told me quite enough (could not count to ten no matter how hard I tried for something like a week after a single dose; lost physical dexterity, zombied). The drugs which DID help me ended up tearing a hole in my short-term memory, tipping my workaholism energy into exhaustion, damaging my creativity and mental acuity... So the concept of someone being forced by people who may not even understand their patient is horrifying to me. It goes back to my quest to up the system to where real, adequate care can be given and the individual case better understood. Mistakes are made and we have to do better.

And most mentally ill people are not threats to themselves or others, or may not need to be given the proper support and environment (goes to the housing/care studies in my OP).

[slackmaster]

28. Point taken. You had a horrible experience. Thanks for helping to enlighten me.

[Fire Walk With Me]

33. I do not wish to diminish your own horrible experiences or education and involvement.

Things are bad all over. Thank you for taking action to attempt to make a positive difference.

[slackmaster]

35. Thanks again. I did have someone committed once, and the good that resulted was very limited.

The only person who was really saved in the long run was me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

20. Of course we will. It's already happening. "Mental illness is the problem. Using drugs

to treat brain illnesses is the problem." Gee, it's bad to be mentally ill, but equally bad to be treating it.

Guess we can't win. Like we chose to have broken brains in the first place.

[Fire Walk With Me]

27. ...

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. *hugs back*

[limpyhobbler]

29. Very well said.

I think we ought to be working to take the stigma out of mental health treatment and properly funding it through public health programs.

Also more using more talk therapy and group therapy, and less relying on prescribing medication.

Some people need medicine but it's pushed on people a little too much these days in my opinion.

[Fire Walk With Me]

31. Thank you. In the ward in which I had the misfortune to end up, it was entirely drugs drugs drugs.

One man who came in twice a week doing volunteer work did hold a talk session, but that was all. I fully agree that more therapy is a good idea. Note that when I got free, I attempted to connect with some therapy workers but did not manage to get anything going even after working hard to chase them down on the phone. People need to know that the system is inadequate as it stands and that this is a voting matter. Misery and tragedy may be headed off through proper funding and care.

And as you imply and others have said in other threads, if mental health issues are punished instead of assisted on a compassionate basis, those with issues will shy away naturally and not get the help they need.

I can't quite believe I'm being an advocate regarding this issue as the issue becomes prevalent. A year with Occupy hasn't even prepared me for it.

[HappyMe]

36. Thank you for a

well thought out, compassionate OP.

[Fire Walk With Me]

37. Saw a comment on Twitter that the NRA are calling for a registry etc. of the "mentally ill".

Is this true?

[Fire Walk With Me]

38. It's true. Updated the OP.

[Fire Walk With Me]

39. The NRA are a massive social and political lobby intent upon expanding markets and sales

for weapons manufacturers. We shall not be their bogeyman, their "X the Unknown" of which to be very, very afraid. Fear them, not us. Fear the police state they intend to install, and currently are.